Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Literature & Fiction

Marcus Brigstocke persuades his reluctant guests to try new experiences: things that they've perhaps always meant to try but haven't had the time, the courage or possibly the inclination. Enjoy hearing some famous names embrace new challenges, such as Phill Jupitus drinking absinthe, Mark Steel constructing flat-pack furniture, Esther Rantzen finally joining Facebook, Kelly Holmes trying her first deep-fried Mars bar, Giles Coren having a go at being vegan, and Frank Skinner getting a spray tan.

Captivating radio dramatisations of seven of Charles Dickens' most famous novels. Charles Dickens is one of the most renowned authors of all time, and this first digital volume of the dramatised canon of his work includes seven of his most popular novels. This collection includes the episodic...

Award-winning author Dame Susan Hill is best known for her hit ghost story The Woman in Black and her popular ‘Simon Serailler’ detective series, but she has also written extensively for radio. This audio anthology includes full-cast adaptations of two of her early novels, plus an additional 12 BBC Radio plays, many of them available for the very first time since their original broadcasts.

All twelve episodes of the BBC Radio 4 sketch show starring Robert Webb and friends Welcome to Concrete Cow, the sketch show where anything is possible. Written by James Cary, who won a Silver Sony Award for Think the Unthinkable, this silly, surreal and ingenious comedy stars one half of...

Set against the backdrop of America's Great Depression and Dust Bowl, a family of farmers from Oklahoma head west in search of work, only to discover thousands like them are also on the move. Following a violent altercation with some locals, they head back on the road with their dream of a promised land in tatters. And life is set to get much worse for the Joads....

With its wickedly funny mimicry and on-point parodies, Dead Ringers became an instant classic when it hit the airwaves in January 2000. In these four series, first broadcast between 2020 and 2023, the team give us their inimitable impersonations of the famous and infamous: from Donald Trump and Joe Biden to Liz Truss, Professor Chris Whitty and Holly Willoughby.

Series five & six of the BBC radio sitcom starring Harry H Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell, adapted from the much-loved TV series. Steptoe and Son ran for eight series on BBC TV and even spawned two feature films. Such was the series' popularity in the mid-1960s that the cast specially recorded several episodes for BBC radio. Here, collected together for the first time, are all episodes from the fifth and sixth radio series, scripted by Hancock's Half Hour creators Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.

Little Blighty is an idyllic part of the world, with a church, a market, a small school and a pub, The Cock and Bull. Village life is pretty uneventful, though the humdrum happenings include social turmoil, economic upheaval and vicious political squabbles - all presided over by the redoubtable head of the Parish Council and secretary of the Rotarians, Mrs Roberts.

Dramatisations of Calvino’s most famous works, starring Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook, plus bonus programmes Italo Calvino was one of the 20th Century's great experimenters, who consistently pushed the boundaries of literature. His works ranged from fantasy and science fiction to folktales...

Based on the real-life memoirs of the 19th Century investigator who inspired Sherlock Holmes, Inspector James McLevy, this atmospheric mystery series features the fictional casebook of Edinburgh's finest thief-taker. Accompanied by his loyal partner, Constable Mulholland, McLevy prowls the murky streets of 1840s Leith bringing criminals to justice—assisted by the madam of Edinburgh's finest bawdy-house, the deliciously immoral Jean Brash.

Author and adventurer Bruce Chatwin was one of the 20th Century’s most charismatic writers. His first book, In Patagonia, changed the face of travel writing and made him a literary sensation. Collected here are dramatisations and readings of some of his best-known work, as well as a bonus programme shedding light on his relationships and writing.

The fourth series of the legendary BBC Radio comedy series starring Tony Hancock Created by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson in 1954, 'Hancock’s Half Hour' was the radio vehicle that made Tony Hancock a household name. Each week listeners would be admitted to the sometimes fantastical, sometimes...

A new edition of the collection featuring each of the Doctor's full-cast BBC radio adventures - and more. In The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space, the Third Doctor reunites with Sarah Jane Smith and UNIT for adventures on Earth and beyond, first broadcast on BBC Radio in the 1990s. In...

In 1940s London, Hercule Poirot is cornered by the club bore and learns of a mysterious death - one which sets him off on one of his most intriguing cases. When Gordon Cloade is killed in a London air raid his vast fortune passes to his young wife Rosaleen. Cloade's relatives are desperate to...

Lady Shonagon is an imperial courtesan, living at the court of the Japanese Emperor in the 10th century. When a series of disturbing thefts within the palace walls throws the court into confusion and unrest, Shonagon is appointed guide and assistant to Lieutenant Yukinari as he investigates. Together, Shonagon and Yukinari must solve the mysteries and escalating crimes that plague the Japanese court, and their romance blossoms in the tightly enclosed world behind the high palace walls. But soon Shonagon's lover, Tadanobu, becomes uncomfortable with how closely they are working together....

Timothy West takes on the role of Rumpole in this collection of cracking court cases. The stories included are: Rumpole and the Primrose Path, Rumpole and the Scales of Justice, Rumpole and the Vanishing Juror, Rumpole Redeemed.

In this full-length Just William novel, William and the Outlaws decide to form the Knights of the Square Table, 'rightin' wrongs' for a minor fee ('Small wrongs: sixpence. Big wrongs: one shillin'.) In their quest to earn enough money to become tramps, they stop at no amount of do-gooding...

In this BBC radio full-cast dramatisation of one of Jane Austen's most beloved works, Fanny Price finds her life isn't going as she would have wished... Fanny grows up mostly miserable in Mansfield Park, where she has always been treated as inferior to her vivacious cousins. However, over time...

A master of Russian realism, Anton Chekhov is renowned for his meticulously observed plays and short stories exploring the human condition, in all its joys and sorrows. Included here are six of his best-known dramas, as well as Michael Frayn's adaptation of Wild Honey, drawn from an early, untitled Chekhov play; and one documentary exploring Chekhov's life and work.

Join the Doctor on these journeys in Time and Space. In The Taking of Chelsea 426, he visits a city-size colony floating on the clouds of Saturn, just as some familiar foes arrive: the Sontarans. In Autonomy, an unspeakable terror is lurking on Level Zero of Hyperville, the hi-tech, 24-hour entertainment complex where the stage is set for a battle with the Autons. In The Krillitane Storm, the Doctor finds medieval Worcester threatened by the legendary Devil’s Huntsman, in reality a menace he has encountered before.